The king and me (film, 1956) – Wikipedia

The king and me ( The King and I ) is an American musical film by Walter Lang, released in 1956.

The film is inspired by the Homonym musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, created at St. James Theater in Broadway in 1951. This musical is adapted from Margaret Landon’s novel, Anna and the king ^{[ first ]} (1944), novel based on a true story: the memories written by the Englishwoman Anna Leonowens , which was governing at the court of Siam (current Thailand) and professor of children of the Mongkut King (Rama IV) from 1862 to 1867.

A first film had been adapted in 1946, Anna and the King of Siam , with Irene Dunne and Rex Harrison.

A young English widow, Anna Leonowens (Deborah Kerr), leaves with her young son Louis (Rex Thompson) in Siam (today Thailand) in order to become the governess of the children of the Mongkut King (Yul Brynner). Unfortunately, the latter refuses to give him the house he had promised him and forces him to live in the palace. Unhappy, Anna decides to leave Siam, but Lady Thiang (Terry Saunders), the sovereign’s first wife, changed her mind. She then decides to help Mongkut who gets into the habit of waking up at late hours to ask her questions. An Ambassador of England, Sir Edward, must come to Siam to realize if the king is really barbaric. With the help of Anna, the king will succeed in proving that his country is civilized and will offer a very successful party. Everything seems to be fine.

TUPTIM (Rita Moreno), the last woman from Mongkut, arrival of Burma as a gift, fled after the party to find her lover and leave with him. The king’s soldiers manage to find her and he wants to whip her to punish her. His lover drowned in the pursuit. Anna opposes this punishment, saying that by acting thus, he would behave like a barbaric. The king does not whip Tuptim. Anna decides to leave Siam all the same. On the day of her departure, we come to warn her that Mongkut is very sick. Anna will see him and learns that he will die. She makes the decision to stay to take care of her children, especially the crown prince.

• I Whistle A Happy Tune – Anna and Louis
• Hello, Young Lovers – Anna
• A Puzzlement – The king
• Getting To Know You – Anna and children
• We Kiss in a Shadow – Tuptim et lun tha
• Something Wonderful – LADY THLANG CLUM
• Prayer to buddha – The king, choir
• The Small House of Uncle Thomas – TUPTIM, choir
• Shall We Dance ? – Anna and the king
• Something Wonderful (Finale) – Choir
• My Lord and Master (deleted) – TUPTIM
• I Have Dreamed (deleted) – TUPTIM and Mon Tha
• Shall I Tell You What I Think Of You ? (deleted) – Anna
• Song Of The King (deleted) – Anna and the king

• The film contains in its last part a fairly long scenic representation played like Thai theater. It is a kind of parable on La Case de l’Oncle Tom de Harriet Beecher Stowe.
• The film was prohibited in Thailand (ex-SIAM) where the romanticized memories of Anna Leonowens were considered contrary to historical reality, in particular concerning the trained portrait of the Mongkut King.
• In the Montreal Journal ^{[ 3 ]} , Guy Fournier condemns attacks against musical and film The King and I By what it describes as “cultural revisionism”, these criticisms mainly relating to the potential cultural appropriation of a story located in the East but reported exclusively by Westerners.

Awards

Nominations

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